The Twin Swords
by papaspider
Summary: A mysterious dimensional entity known simply as "The Empire" is threatening to obliterate two realities: ours and the world of Bleach. Two champions are chosen - From our world: A weary young girl who was at one time an agent of The Empire. From the world of Bleach: Karin Kurosaki, the oldest living child in the Kurosaki family.
1. Chapter 1

_The Unthinkable_

In a forgotten part of town, on the top floor of a decaying and equally forgotten apartment building lived a young girl who, as a matter of fact, was also (mostly) forgotten.

But she preferred it that way - even taking great pains to forget her own name

Outside her window, the grey silhouette of the city proper could be seen on the horizon. She wondered about the lives of the people who inhabited the city – the boring day-to-day activities of everyday nobodies interested her the most.

She closed her eyes and imagined their dreadfully dull lives: Cramped birthday parties in small apartments thrown for old people and the faces of the disappointed children that were forced to attend; or simply holding the hand of someone you loved when walking through one of the old department stores with exposed lighting and water-stained ceilings.

And with every ounce of her being, she envied them.

An angry fluttering of wings snapped her attention back to the game she was playing. Also, there was knock at the door.

"I guess _I'll _get that. Don't anybody look at my cards." spoke the young girl.

More angry wing fluttering and clicking sounds followed.

She rolled her eyes and went to the door.

"You're early-" Outside her door stood not the elderly tenants she was expecting, but a tall and beautiful young woman in a dress whose blue color shimmered and whose patterns appeared to be moving—like the surface of the ocean.

"What are you doing here…again? Wait, what? How do I know you…Oh, my nose!"

Suddenly the young girl's nose started profusely bleeding. "This is problematic and most troubling!" yelled the young girl frantically trying to contain the flow of blood.

"I know what you're thinking but you must 'unthink' what it is you're thinking about or your nose will keep bleeding and then…well, you know."

"No, I don't know as a matter of fact."

The young woman slapped the panicked young girl across her forehead. "UNTHINK!" she yelled. And it worked: the girl's nose stopped bleeding. Of course, being slapped by a stranger didn't really improve her mood. She kicked the strange forehead-slapping, crazy blues dress wearing woman in the shins.

"Oh, you're kicking me now. That's a new one. Feel free to stop."

"Feel free to not slap me, you stupid jerk!"

The woman then asked, "So, I can come in now?"

"Who were you talking to before I came to the door?"

"I could tell you but then your nose would start bleeding again."

The young girl thought for a moment, then said "You're full of crap."

The woman in the blue dress crossed her arms and sighed impatiently. "Very well—it was you. Perhaps we can carry on our conversation inside?"O

The young girl gave the woman a once-over. "Sure, come in. By the way what am I doing outside my own apartment? Seems a bit rude not to stop by and say 'hi' or something."

"Oh, you would have said hi but as you know…here take this." She handed the young girl a tissue before continuing. "But as you know, that would have killed both of you. These nosebleeds are the results of a sort of temporal-quantum entanglement issue."

Just then they both heard voices in the hallway and the young girl recognized her own voice.

As her nose began to bleed the woman raised the tissue to the young girl's nose.

"You're going to smack me again aren't you?"

"Yes, yes I am, _Ann_." The strange woman replied with a slight smile.

Ann's eyes widened with shock and she felt faint. Just then, the other Ann that they had heard down the hall rushed just closed enough so that they could see her. Other Ann yelled at the woman, "Hey! No real names, remember?"

The bleeding intensified for both Anns. Other Ann threw a paper airplane and then ran down the opposite end of the hallway and disappeared from view.

Ann picked up the paper plane, unfolded it, read it and laughed.

"You can 'unthink' me now_, Bojangles_."

Bojangles unthinked her hand across Ann's head with more force than necessary. Bojangles hated that name.

"Worth it!" said Ann before passing out from the blood loss.

_How I live now_

The sound of fluttering grew louder until Ann opened her eyes. She was lying on her couch and could see several of her roommates flying around her, hissing with worry and concern. Most of them were drones but some she recognized – especially The Queen who wore a purple string attached to her left antennae and was perched on Ann's right hand.

In fact most of her roommates had come out – they surrounded her on the couch and formed a defensive perimeter around the sleeping girl. This was, of course, standard protocol for them: Ann was The Queen's closest friend and had fought side-by-side with the colony in The Great Spider War of Several Weeks Ago.

Ann slowly and carefully sat up. The Queen directed several drones to push a glass of water on the coffee table closer to Ann's hand. The girl gratefully took a few sips before placing the glass down and inviting the drones for a swim in the glass. They enthusiastically took her up on the offer.

"I see you're awake."

Bojangles approached the couch but could not get very close without being assailed by angry hisses and clicks.

Ann yawned. "I feel like I slept for a month of Sundays - what day is it?"

Bojangles laughed softly "You've been asleep for about fifteen minutes."

"The last thing I remember is passing out and losing a lot of blood. Shouldn't I be dead?"

The woman in the blue dress laughed again and drew her right hand to her mouth. She took a deep breath and blew thousands of tiny bubbles from her hand – Ann's roommates were gently pushed out of the way. Bojangles then sat down on the couch next to Ann. And when The Queen hissed in protest, Bojangles released a stream of water suspended in midair which she directed towards the kitchen.

The previously hissing roommates followed the stream and soon were happily hissing and clicking in their very own floating water park.

"Better for them to stay in the kitchen –your friend Mrs. Slocumbe is not very fond of your _other friends._ And to answer your question, yes you should have died, but I have my…_talent_s."

"Who are you, really?" asked Ann.

There was a knock at the door.

"A friend." Bojangles replied with warm smile. "With a favor to ask."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 3

_Parasomina_

15 year-old Karin Kurosaki woke up to the sound of crashing waves and the gentle drops of a pre-dawn rain shower. She was lying on the sand—just like all the previous times—and with no memory of ever walking the several miles from her home to the oceanfront.

The walk back home would take upwards of an hour and every muscle in her arms, legs, and back hurt – just like before. Her stomach growled but she would have neither the money nor the energy to stop at a corner shop and grab a bite. She held her stomach with one hand and placed her foot forward to begin the long and miserable journey…when her toe stubbed on something hard in the sand and she promptly fell forward onto the ground.

Cursing under her breath, she cautiously felt for whatever had come in contact with her sore toe and pulled until the hilt of a very large sword was in her hand. It was warm to the touch and felt heavy; she couldn't pick up the entire thing.

"Are you from my dream?" she asked aloud.

A faint hum resonated from the sword as if in response to her question. This time she tried lifting the sword with both hands and succeeded, though it was still very heavy. She inhaled and exhaled sharply as she raised it toward the sky. The rainfall increased in its intensity and the sky darkened over as the ocean roared as if in anger of this sword's very existence.

Karin could feel a surge of power coming from the ground and into the sword. Her eyes widened as partial memories played in her mind: A dark place with the sound of the ocean, the strange boy with a seashell heart, and tests – grueling and seemingly never-ending tests.

Had she passed them?

Her arms felt hot and strained as she walked towards the road.

_If something is a burden…_

"…then become light as air." She spoke aloud, finishing a thought that came from her mind but which was not her own. She knew, though, where the thought had come from: The sword. And she grasped the meaning of that phrase as her muscles remembered what they had learned during the tests.

Without thought, Karin focused on a blue postal box on the street corner forty feet away and stepped forward…and was there standing by it in the blink of an eye. The young teen's conscious mind struggled to comprehend what had just happened, but she focused on the corner shop that she could barely see and flash stepped to its roof.

She continued flash stepping through the rain from rooftop to rooftop until she was standing on her neighbor's roof. Yuzu, her twin sister and best friend, was standing in their garden holding an umbrella and waiting for Karin. Karin's twin was the only person who knew of her nighttime travels and helped Karin avoid getting caught by their over-protective father.

Karin flashed down a few feet behind Yuzu in an effort to surprise her, but Yuzu turned around as soon as Karin had landed. There was a look of worry and betrayal in the younger twin's eyes. Karin never told Yuzu why she had been disappearing at night or where she had been. She couldn't – not yet.

"I saw you on the roof." Yuzu said plainly with no emotion as she extended the umbrella over Karin. The older twin was grateful to have some cover from the downpour. She motioned for Yuzu to share the umbrella with her, but Yuzu ignored her and began walking towards the backdoor.

"You should hide that sword in the garden or dad will freak out." She said to Karin as she walked inside, her voice still devoid of feeling. "Oh, and I put some warm clothes on our bed. You can crash for six hours before summer school starts – I already did your class work so you can sleep a little during class. The teacher won't notice if you prop one of those big geography books in front of you."

Karin smiled awkwardly; they had never kept secrets from each other. And now Karin was keeping a big secret from her twin, and it hurt Yuzu deeply.

"Thanks, Yu, I wish I co-"

The door shut leaving Karin standing in the rain by herself.

"I wish I could tell you" Karin continued, talking to no one "that I would do anything to protect you."


End file.
